Octoberfest Day 30: "Frightening Regrets"

I'm going to regret the activity for Day 30. At least that's what I thought. But the reality wasn't nearly as frightening as I thought it would be. I spent part of evening with my nieces again as they were trick or treating in Des Moines. Sarah went as an 80s rock girl and Londyn was Jessie her favorite character from Toy Story. I didn't get to see Sarah as much because she was walking around with the neighbor kids. Londyn was so excited for Halloween. She actually said to my mom "it's Hawoween! Gobwins are coming!" :) I'm sure she picked that up from one of her cartoons. So she was ecstatic to trick or treat. And she wanted to wear her costume everywhere. Even when it wasn't Halloween. It was super fun to take her around. After every house she said "got more canny" and then told me her bucket was "too heaby" so I helped carry it for her. The other funny thing is that nobody could understand what she was saying for her joke. She talks pretty well for her age but at just 3 she's still got her own little language. Walking around with her made me reminisce about how much fun it was to trick or treat as a kid. My dad made a map of our neighborhood and we would come home with an entire pillowcase full of candy. But back then beggar's night lasted from like 5-10 or something crazy. It was a lot longer than now, I know that for sure. Once we got back to my brother's, Londyn was sharing her candy with us and still excited about her loot. I decided that once I got home, I was going to attempt to conquer one of my fears for my activity. I was going to watch a scary movie by myself on the eve of Halloween. I mean the timing makes sense. But here's the thing: I don't like scary things anymore as an adult LOL. When I was younger, I wanted to watch scary movies and go to haunted houses. Except for the time when we went to the haunted forest and I assured my aunt I was old enough to go since my cousins were also going. Well what we didn't plan on was that two of the "scary guys" trapped us in one part of the forest and wouldn't let us past them and their chainsaws. You can imagine that would be particularly terrifying for a 9-year-old. Once those idiots did lets us past them, I threw up everywhere in fear and had to walk in front with the guide the rest of the time. I haven't been able to get past my fears since then. Occasionally I'll watch something scary but I hide my face the entire time. Even when previews of scary movies come on, I change the channel or hide my face and plug my ears. It's silly, I know. But when you live without any roommates, the smallest noises can really get your mind wandering. So I found one of the Friday the 13th movies (perfect, reminds me of my childhood) and set out to watch it, heart pounding already. Guess what?! The movie was a joke. It wasn't scary at all. In fact, it was quite stupid. I couldn't take any of it seriously and didn't last more than 30 minutes. Who would have thunk it?! I thought for sure I would be terrified and instead I'm laughing at the absurdness of this plot! Now in hindsight, I know I could have picked a scarier movie but I'm making up the rules here LOL. The interesting thing about conquering a fear is that things are almost always worse when you imagine them because you're unsure of what to expect. Fear of the unknown is the real culprit. Once I set out to conquer the fear, it turned out to be a non-issue. If that's the case I'm wondering about some of my other fears...like approaching a guy I find attractive. Ahh geesh, that's too much. Jason is the only guy I'm approaching tonight and I just turned the channel on him. Until tomorrow, my bravery is done for tonight.